*PLEASE READ THE UNDERLINED PART OF THE AUTHOR'S NOTE AT THE END IF YOU DON'T USUALLY READ IT. IT'S IMPORTANT.*

*Also, the images at the top are concept art for Sorena's helmet design. I'll post the full picture sometime later today if I have time.*

This day was probably going to go down as the worst every in the history of the Rebellion, as far as Hera was concerned. Although she was far from pessimistic – that was Kanan's job – the odds were really stacked against them this time.

First, they'd made the mistake of trusting Minister Tua, who had betrayed them. Then, they'd been blasted out of the sky by an AT-AT. Next, they had run to Ezra's childhood home to regroup and that had been blown up. (She still wasn't sure if Ezra was all right – it was one of the last memories he had of his parents.)

And now, she was on her way into an Imperial complex, squished into a crate on an antigrav platform with almost no room to move – Sabine, Teri and Hera herself had all crowded into one rather than someone share with Zeb. Chopper, who had no sense of smell and therefore no such reservations, was with him.

A few moments later, she felt the crate tilt as Ezra, who was pushing them, rounded a corner, and then another as they were pulled back through a doorway. As they slowed to a halt, Teri's grey eyes met hers, and they lifted the cover from their crate and got out.

The next thing she knew, the lid on the crate alongside them flew off and Zeb jumped out, yelling incomprehensibly and gasping for breath.

"Zeb, will you be quiet?" she asked softly. She didn't really have the energy or the patience to scold him more thoroughly.

"What, I need to breathe!" The big Lasat massaged his throat for a moment before speaking again. "Have you smelled me?"

Hera opened her mouth to say something to get him to quiet down, but Teri was not about to let such an opportunity pass him by.

"You know," he said, as if speaking to a small child, "there's this thing called a 'fresher'. And then there's this other thing called 'deodorizing soap'. This might be a revolutionary concept for you and hard to grasp, but when you put them together on a regular basis, the smell simply... goes away."

Ezra and Sabine snickered, and Hera was pretty sure Kanan was grinning under his bucket-head helmet too. Zeb, choosing to be dignified about the fact that he had been one-upped by the informant, simply huffed and rolled his eyes.

Although the events of the day had clearly set Teri edge, the taunt brought a different side of him to light. It made him seem less serious; made it easier to imagine what he had been like before life and its trials had caught up to him.

"Huh, don't think it matters if you're noisy," said Sabine, walking back from the door. "There's nobody around. This was a good plan."

Kanan came back into view, taking off his helmet. "Of course it was a good plan – we came up with it!"

"This way!" Ezra called, starting to run.

They were all about to take off after him when a series of angry warbles and bleeps came from the crate. Hera sighed, pointing back behind her. "Will somebody get Chopper...!"

"For your information, you're quite lucky these kids don't know what half your audio binary subroutines mean," Teri said, addressing the droid. "Also, what you say is what you are, potty mouth. You're the chi'fa d'har kippfa, not me."

That sounded like Togruti, but Hera didn't know what it meant, or what the translation in Basic was. And, if the expression on Kanan's face said anything, she wasn't sure she wanted to.

But, either way, even if Teri didn't plan on staying with them long, he would always have a place on the Ghost if he wanted it.

Lux and the crew ran out onto the landing platform, hurrying through the deep shadows cast by TIE fighters in an effort to stay out of the open. As soon as they reached an area with better cover, Kanan stopped them.

"Well, there's a shuttle," he said, gesturing to a Lambda-class T-4a shuttle stationed nearby.

Hera nodded. "You did good."

They started up their running pace once more, and although Lux's senses weren't all that attuned, it was impossible to miss the convergence of energy in the Force around the ship. Someone important must have flown it here, he thought.

A moment later, Sabine called Hera back. Ezra and Zeb followed back around the corner, disappearing for a few minutes. The four of them came back pushing military shield generators ahead of them.

That would probably help soften the mistakes they had made today with Commander Sato when they got back to the fleet.

Kanan turned around, about to make his way back over to help them out. But suddenly, he stopped in his tracks. Ezra did the same a moment later, and it took Lux less than a second to realize what had caught their attention.

"Do you feel that...?" Ezra asked.

"Yes," Lux whispered.

Kanan exhaled softly. "The cold."

The three turned around, immediately catching sight of an indistinct figure in the mist on the other side of the landing platform. The eerie sound of a respirator cut through the stillness like a knife.

Then, hardly a moment later, the shape split in two: it had really been made up of two people – man and a Togruta woman clad in dark armor, by the looks of it – standing one behind the other. Lux felt his muscles clench when a crimson lightsaber flared to life in each of their hands.

Darksiders.

As the pair approached, several squadrons of Storm Troopers surged out from behind them. This had been a trap for the rebels all along, and they had walked right into it.

Kanan and Ezra turned on their own lightsabers, pulling their limbs into combat positions. "Hera, go!" the elder Jedi yelled. "We'll cover you!"

Lux wasn't sure which party he was being included in, the one making for the ship or the one defending, but he made his own choice quickly enough. Snatching Ahsoka's lightsaber from its place on his belt, he ran forwards to stand alongside Master and Padawan.

Then, taking a deep breath, he ignited the blade, letting the calming white light and memories it brought with it wash over him.

"Three Jedi!" the Togruta Darksider hissed gleefully, her voice coming out rough and tinny through the speaker on the helmet covering her face and part of her lekku. "So, the rebels have made another convert. Oh, what a catch this will make!"

Suddenly, Hera's warning call cut through the air. "Kanan, look out!"

Kanan, who had turned to look at the white blade in Lux's hands, brought his saber up just in time to block the tall masked man's attack.

Simultaneously, the woman ignited a second blade on her lightsaber – which was quite similar to the description Kanan had given him of the one the Inquisitor had used – and slashed at him. Lux jumped to the side, avoiding her attack, and locked sabers with her a moment later.

"Teri!" Ezra called. "Are you–"

"I can handle her, kid! You help Kanan!"

No sooner had the words left his lips when the man raised a black gloved hand in a stunning Force-push, which sent Ezra and Kanan flying. But the latter was soon up again and countering the man's attacks, and that was good enough for him.

He met the woman's next attack and then darted to her side, slicing at her exposed underarm. She batted his saber away a moment later, forcing him back.

"So, Teri, is it?" she said. "White lightsaber crystals are quite rare, and Ilum has been locked down for years. Where'd you get it?"

"From an old friend," Lux said, stifling a grunt as he put every bit of power he had into keeping her blade away from him. Gods, she was strong! "So, you know what they call me, but I don't know what they call you. Might I ask you your name?"

"I'm the new Grand Inquisitor, handsome. But you can just call me Sorena," she purred, and her lightsaber grazed past the loose sleeve on his coat, just close enough to burn through the fabric. But, thankfully, it was still too far to cut him.

Suddenly, there was a loud thunk as a living body hit metal. Lux locked blades with the Inquisitor and dared to look back towards the origins of the sound.

Ezra was being pinned to the leg of an AT-AT walker by the man's deadly Force powers. Kanan lay winded further away.

"Your Master has deceived you," he said, his voice booming through the synthesizer on his helmet in a way that was even more fear-inspiring than Sorena's, "into believing you could become a Jedi."

And with that, the man began pushing Ezra's lit saber towards his neck. Eyes wide, the boy was trying to fight it, but the blade was still inching slowly towards him. Lux tried to force the Inquisitor away from him to run to his assistance, but to no avail. As a last resort, he sent the equivalent of a psychic yell in Kanan's direction in hopes of rousing him.

It worked. The young Jedi engaged the Darksider once more, and a newly freed Ezra slid down the metal surface and to the ground.

Lux aimed a blow at the woman's helmeted face, only to have her arch her back and duck out of the way with special awareness only a Togruta was capable of.

She straightened her posture again a moment later. Then, she jumped up to push herself off the nearest vertical surface: the leg of the same AT-AT walker Ezra had just been held on.

The boy scrambled out of the way as she sent herself flying back down at Lux. Their blades clashed again, before she used her momentum to flip over his head and land behind him.

For a moment, everything disappeared; the sounds of the battle, the sweat dripping down his forehead, all of it. A spectral image of another Togruta, this one far younger and less menacing, appeared before him. She flew up, and, in the same maneuver, used two wooden training staffs to push herself off one of his own. He could remember her saying that she had just created it like it was only yesterday...

Then the vision was gone again.

His breath caught in his throat, but, as their sabers met again, he managed to speak. "Only one person alive knows that move..."

The Inquisitor froze.

"Gods above and gods below, it's you..." he whispered.

With a yell of outrage, Ahsoka Tano rushed him again. Just as several explosive charges from Sabine and Zeb sent a pair of walkers falling down on the other Darksider, he twisted around, using her speed against her. The Force surged up inside him, and he used it to send her flying into a wall. She hit it head-on, and then, with a soft groan of pain, sank to the ground, knocked out cold.

He didn't even bother turning back toward Ezra and Kanan as the two walkers began to rise up again with the sheer power of the Dark Side of the Force. He ran back to where she lay limp on the ground, gathering her up in his arms. He tapped a small button on the side of her masked face, and the two halves of the visor slid apart.

The white facial markings were more elaborate than he remembered thanks to her age, but the curve of her dark lips and the way her eyelashes fell on her cheeks was the same. Lux was staring at the face of the woman he loved.

"I thought you were dead," he whispered, holding her unconscious body close. Tears blurred his vision and ran down his cheeks as he placed a chaste kiss on her forehead. "I thought I lost you..."

"Teri!"

Suddenly, he became aware that someone was calling him. "Teri, run!"

And run he did, but not before putting her Inquisitor's lightsaber on his belt, along with the one with the white blade, and carefully picking her up. He made it to the ship just in time, using the Force to jump from the ground to the ramp.

Then, the door closed, and the ship flew from the scene as fast as its atmospheric engine settings could carry it.

*Lux had started down the long road to discovering the truth about what happened to Ahsoka. But why did he think she was dead? And how did they meet up in the first place? And Vader's plans move forward with every step the rebels take towards what they think is victory. But there is more to Teri, rebel informant, and far more to Sorena, the Grand Inquisitor, than meets the eye. The true motives of the opposing sides in this game of war will be revealed quite soon, but where their loyalties really lie is another matter entirely...

WOW, that was a long chapter. Long and I THINK exciting enough to reread and keep you entertained while I'm gone. You're welcome, guys.

LE IMPORTANT MESSAGE:

All righty then, so the reason I asked for your attention earlier is because I'm going away on a school trip Monday through Friday next week. I will have internet access on my phone when I'm at the hotel and maybe some of the attractions, so I'll be able to answer to my notifications if I'm not too tired, but I'm not allowed to bring my laptop with me. So, because I'm finicky and I don't like writing actual chapters on the phone, there won't be anything new coming out next week probably until next Saturday morning. Okay, important message over.

I actually spent a good two hours writing this chapter when I was supposed to be packing... But no one was actually around to tell me off and it was worth it haha!

Anyway, I REALLY liked how the battle scene turned out. I knew where I wanted to go with it, but the Sorena/Teri dynamic turned into more of a Ventress/Obi-Wan sort of duel because I thought it would make the story better. Hence Ahsoka calling him 'handsome'. (I couldn't resist throwing that in there XD) We'll learn more about how she feels about seeing him again in future chapters.

And then there was that little kiss... *runs around the place fangirling because this way of writing Luxsoka is so NEW and EXCITING* COULDN'T RESIST THAT EITHER :DDDD

So, like I said, I'm going away for the week, but I'll be back into the swing of things next weekend. Just be patient and as awesome as you always are.

May the Force be with you,

Sharron